Definately an improvement imo. West Ham ... we were better in attack but his substitute of holtby on for adebayor was a mistake for me Southampton ... we were better in attack, weak in defence, more creative Wba...didnt take our chances, not so creative...slight step backwards Stoke...did well allround against a poor team Man utd...good going forward, creative, defended well...got a bit lucky but deserved to win Arsenal... a nothing team display...a mistake to go 442 imo but we were missing players...beaten by the better team I hope he learns from today and hope the board see that a left back and a forward is a priority. One final point...am I alone in feeling irritated with soldado being so poor today? I get players making mistakes like rose did but he seemed to be uninterested after about 20 mins or so.
I'm sure Soldado is just embarrased that what he was doing for fun in Spain has now become impossible in a league where he came to impress and improve. He is not the first striker to find such a situation and we have to hope that it turns around for him.
I wouldn't say he's disinterested, but he cuts an anxious figure on the pitch to me, worrying if this will be the game he scores, anyone who's played up front at any level will have been through it and its horrible. Its a mental thing for sure, before it was service, now he's getting plenty of good chances in good positions, but he's shanking and scuffing everything, anything true is straight into the keepers midriff. All strikers have a **** season, and we've copped his!, Ade and JD had a poor season recently with neither reaching double figures.
Soldado is suffering from what Torres suffers from, a realisation that no matter how hard they try, they simply aren't going to be prolific again. They can work for the team, link up well or show passion but their job is to score and when a striker knows it's simply not happening, they will have games where they struggle to perform. Overall I'm been impressed by Soldado's attitude and have no issues with him personally,. The issue I have is how we sat down in the summer and decided to pay 26 million for a 28 yr old, utter madness unless we're signing a proven world class talent and even then that's a risk as Chelsea saw with Shevchenko.
Seeing this thread is about Tim Sherwood, does anyone think he knows of any formation other than 4-4-2 as I am wondering if he believes this formation suits every match no matter who we play? Today was not a 4-4-2 day by any stretch. I was amazed we went to the Emirates looking so open. Blind belief or sheer insanity? You decide. P.S. Not taking into account the mistake for the second goal which just exacerbates my point but Danny Rose is an appalling left back. Championship level at best. We need to strengthen there as our options are frighteningly bad!
I think he decided that 442 would keep players in their best positions...if it wasnt for the injuries I hope he'd have gone for a different system
Because of our previous manager installing a defensive approach, Sherwood has decided to go from one extreme to another, meaning we now play open but there is a greater chance of us killing off teams. So it's a bit of both, blind faith and naive but being realistic it be rare for a manager in their first job to have the confidence and abilities to change system every match based on their opponents. I actually think we have been doing OK defensive wise, Utd didn't create much against us and while Arsenal won we weren't battered. Just a case of them being too good on the day. But back to 442, it's not like Ade and Soldado just sit up top goal hanging, they both at times drop deep or one stays up and the other drifts. 442 is a tried and tested system to use and in all honesty even if we played 4231 I doubt it would have made much difference to the end result.
Totally agree. Yesterday was the most obvious error, but Rose has been found out positionally on more occasions than I care to recall. The first 10-15 mins against Utd were a good example. Certainly not to start a witch hunt - as I am sure would have happened if another LB had made such a bloomer - but realisation that the lad is not currently good enough. He may be a decent lad as OS has indicated, but I do think he also comes across as if he knows it all. Trouble is, we have no better options unless we recall you-know-who or buy in quality. Rose (at this stage of his career) should be the back-up option at best. Our problems down the left side are exacerbated by Eriksen not adding much defensively. Undoubtedly talented, he looks lightweight at PL level. Hopefully he will strengthen up.
Coentrao is supposedly available for £12m - to everyone but us, probably, judging by how this "special relationship" is working out...
Unfortunately Rose is fitting Jamie Carragher's description of a fullback...either a failed CB or winger! Rose being a winger explains his getting caught forward, and Eriksen in front of him is a bit of a disaster as alluded too already. A specialist LB should be a requirement we should be meeting.
I think it's more down to ignorance and the limitations of Sherwoodie as a manager. During this honeymoon period, we are inevitably going to have a few fans come out and decry that Sherwoodie is the Great White Hope that we've all be waiting for, and making all kinds of wild assumptions about where he will take us. Unfortunately, he is, in reality, a lesser experienced version of Redknap, limited in tactical ability, and soon to be found out. Redknap's experience and undoubted man-management skills (at least, with the players who were inside the "Harry circle") enabled him to push a half-decent team (one that contained the world class Bale) to its limits and secure us CL footy for one season. Is Sherwoodie better for the club than AVB? In the short term, yes, probably. Then again, some of us never wanted AVB at the club, so Sherwoodie being better than AVB isn't such a great accolade to hold, in the eyes of those fans. Is Sherwoodie the long term solution to our managerial crisis? Absolutely not.
If Sherwood thinks 442 is the answer I dread to think what the question is. It only works with exactly the right personnel which we currently don't have. Even under Harry it only worked if we had no injuries.
The weirdest thing about Saturday's match for me was changing away from 422 as soon as we went 2-0 down. But later when Arsenal were down to 10 men we didn't change anything at all. Neither of those suggested we were still trying to get something out of the game. The only explanation I can think of is that Sherwood told Levy that we shouldn't take any more big defeats.
Not sure that 4-4-2 was the problem, but more the personnel. Bentaleb looks a prospect, but would have rather seen Capoue of the options we have. Bentaleb is being brought in as a ready made player when in truth he is work in progress. Had we had Sandro/Paulinho available then it may have worked better.
Agree. The signs have been positive for Bentaleb so far, but this game was 1 too much for him. Gave the ball away far too often, whether it was a sloppy pass or a silly foul.
442 never works against good opposition which is why I think we shouldn't use it at all. We've had enough changes this season without switching formations all the time.
